Bill Nye the Science Guy entertained and educated the flood of students, teachers and public alike at the first of this school year’s Golden Tribe Lecture Series on September 16, 2014. On February 24, 2015, one semester later as the second part to the series, Arianna Huffington took to the same stage Nye presented on. Huffington presented her own words of wisdom to a crowd of fans yearning to hear what the editor-in-chief of the beloved and renowned Huffington Post had to say.
Arianna specializes in numerous topics including politics, economics, media, public policy and even a few tricks on how to further succeed in many aspects of life. She grabbed the attention of the crowd by opening with a quote near and dear to most of the people whose ears the words fell upon:
“I am a sleep advocate. I am a sleep evangelist… if you want to nap during my speech that’s okay. I’m a big proponent of napping.”
Many students chortled as their minds thought about how great it would be if it were just that simple. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, right? But Arianna went on to explain that if we slept more efficiently, we would also work more efficiently during our waking hours. Seems simple enough, but I know myself that this is a very hard task to achieve. She went on to share an interesting (and humorous) tidbit about the Huffington Post’s headquarters and how they are on their way to sleeping more efficiently.
A nap room in the Huffington Post headquarters
“We have two nap rooms. They are perpetually full. Once I saw two people coming out of it and I thought, ‘Whatever it takes to re-energize you, just don’t tell HR.’”
After telling us how to jump the hurdle of being less-than-efficient due to lack of sleep, she told the audience how to get over the fear of starting something new. For all of you bloggers or tentative writers who are thinking about starting a blog but don’t know where to begin, she offered words of encouragement:
“Blogging was seen as something you did if you couldn’t get a job, but now everyone’s doing it. It creates a platform for anyone who has something to say, whether they are a CEO of a big company or a student. Ubiquity is the new exclusivity.”
Although she is a big advocate for blogging and getting your story out there, she also warned about the dangers of putting yourself on screen.
“No one is as happy as everyone seems to be on Instagram. No one is as sad as they seem on Twitter. No one is as employable as they seem on LinkedIn. This is all manufactured version of a person.”
Many of the words that she offered seemed to be obvious truths (your Facebook is not really you, sleep is good, writing is great, etc.), but the beauty of her words is that they were so simple. Sometimes people become so lost in the perplexity of life that it is difficult to control the more involved things that we should be doing. These simple words of encouragement and advice really put into perspective just how easy it can be to improve your life. Her final words of advice let her viewers know that even though hard work can pay off, sometimes you must rely on the help of others and the karma of the universe to get you to where you want to be:
“Life is a combination of making things happen and letting them happen. I work hard, don’t get me wrong, but some of the greatest things that happen to me just do.”
The FSU community thanks Arianna Huffington for coming to our campus and opening our eyes to many ideas. We look forward to seeing who the next speaker will be to grace the stage at Ruby Diamond Concert Hall.